Formula 1 teams stick to original dates of final pre-season test session in Barcelona – Formula 1
It was recently revealed that the International Automobile Federation (FIA) amended the dates of the final pre-season test session that was originally expected to take place in Barcelona starting from March 8, 2011.
The FIA wants to delay the session by a day and begin the test sessions from March 9 instead. However, it seems that 9 out of 12 of the teams want to stick to the original dates and start testing in Barcelona from March 8.
Only Williams, Ferrari and Team Mercedes have announced that they will be running on the new schedule for the final pre-season test session. This means that Barcelona is going to be a five-day test session as a result but each team is going to be allowed
to run their respective tests for 4 days each.
“We will be testing from March 8 to 11,” a spokesperson for Sauber confirmed on Monday morning.
9 out of 12 teams have already confirmed their schedule and they are going to test according to the original plan for the session. However, it is believed that Williams, Ferrari and Mercedes might also contact the FIA for a confirmation of their schedule
and they might follow the rest of the teams as well and test their respective cars at the original dates.
But if Ferrari, Williams and Mercedes stick to their current plan and test at the new dates in Barcelona, then the rest of the teams can benefit from this plan as well. They could also skip a day in between their 4-day testing and test their cars with Williams,
Ferrari and Mercedes’ last day of testing on March 12 instead.
“Teams can alter their testing days by one day, but given the quick turnaround for freight departing for Australia immediately after the test we felt these days suited us better,” according to a spokesman of Force India.
However, the final pre-season test session is going to be quite important for the teams as this is going to be their last chance to test their respective cars and drag the best out of their new cars before the season opening race that is expected to take
place in Australia on March 27, 2011.
According to Jenson Button of McLaren, Team McLaren has not been able to drive its new MP4-26 to its limit yet and same is the case with Team Mercedes as they have also been unable to perform up to their expectations.
The season opening race is going to be quite anticipating for the teams and fans as the results of the race would definitely reveal a lot of what each team is capable of in the 2011 Formula 1 season.
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